Maximizing Your Activities Section Common App

Want to learn about maximizing your activities section common app? Hey everyone! Welcome back. As the deadline for the UC Applications is approaching, I want to address another popular question that most people have. “How am I supposed to fill out the common app activities section?” It seems simple, but is it? Let’s find out!

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Tips For The Activities Section Common App

List It

Your first step should be to create a list of everything you have done outside of class. In this step, do not discriminate by how long you have done something for. Many people tend to leave really good experiences off of their list because they think they have not done it for enough time for it to count. Generally, if you did something (not video games or a YouTube binge) that lasted longer than 2 weeks, it’s probably worth noting.

Describe It

Next, write a 2-sentence description of each activity. The first sentence should describe what you did. The second one should be the effect this activity had on you. Essentially, you would describe what you learned or gained from it.

Organize It

After that, it is time for you to organize and order your activities into the following categories: Leadership, Learning, and Other. By doing so, admission readers will get an easy-to-understand and organized feeling that you are a well-rounded person.

Leadership is defined as any formally recognized experience that requires you to help or empower others. Typically, titles associated with this category have to do with club involvement, leadership class, school events, sports, and band.

Learning is defined as both formal and informal academic learning experiences that were part of your high school experience. If you were a general club member, for instance, of a Robotics team, then this would be a good place to put that. However, if you were part of the leadership of that Robotics team, you’ll want to put that in the Leadership bucket. Note that personal projects and internships also fall into this category.

“Other” is defined as any experience that doesn’t meet the prior definitions. Popular entries here include sports and recreational activities such as music or crafts not pertaining to your major.

With the advice so far, you should be able to fill out any application with great certainty. However, in the honor of UC Applications month, I’m going to give some more tips tailored to the UC Application.

UC Best Practices For The Activities Section Common App

Don’t focus on the descriptions – focus on the order. Readers will read your entries from top to bottom, so strike a good impression: Leadership, Learning, and Other.
List it, even if you only did it once. Whether you engaged in a volunteer activity only one time, or only did a sport for only one year, we want to know about it. Just because you didn’t continue it, doesn’t mean it looks bad; it just means you had other things to do that were more important.
1. Many students think doing a sport or activity only one year looks bad – a huge myth.
Elaborate elsewhere. If you find yourself needing way more words than the character count allows in Activities, that probably means you should consider writing a PIQ on it. At the very least, describing the activity in further detail in Additional Comments at the end of your application.

For all you UC applicants, this should be all you need to make sure your activities section common app is as polished as it can be. Go out and make your application the best it can be!

If you are a Common Application applicant, we have decided to throw in some best practices for that as well.

Activities Section Common App Best Practices

Use the Awards Section. Don’t take up valuable space in Activities when you can highlight your awards elsewhere.
Choose the Right Category. Select the option from the dropdown that best reflects the nature of the activity. If the activity was largely career-oriented, then designate it as such. However, if it was more of a fun learning experience, then be honest. Lastly, don’t stress if you’re not sure which category is best. Chances are you’re thinking way harder than your reader will.
Combine. If you had different involvements or positions within the same organization, then put your highest earned title when asked for your position, and provide a description of your changing roles in the description. This allows you to highlight your greatest accomplishment while saving you space for more activities

As a bonus, here’s a list of some of the activities that you are most likely forgetting about.

Commonly Forgotten Activities On The Common App Activities Section

That sport you only did for one year in 9th grade (but had to stop because school got busy)
The club that you were a general member for (but the club wasn’t always active)
The volunteer experience that lasted only a day
The self-taught Python course, or any Coursera/edX/other course, you decided to take
The personal project you undertook – whether it was designing your own computer games or that electric skateboard you tried building. Even if you “failed”, it reads well on paper.

I hope that this provides some valuable insight into how to fill out your activities section common app. For a full feature and even more detail, check out our YouTube video about it.

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Sarah Gooch

Essay Editor

Q:How many total years of experience do you have in your current role, including but not limited to ReadyEdgeGo?

A: I have five years' experience in coaching student writing, but this is my first year with ReadyEdgeGo.

Q: What about working with students do you most enjoy?

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Q: What do you like to do in your free time?

A: In theory, I enjoy painting and writing poetry, but these days I actually spend most of my free time socializing or watching movies with my husband.

Q: What is your one piece of advice for high schoolers?

A: Don't just focus on achieving top grades and credentials because they look good on applications, or your education will be meaningless. The numbers and awards have their place, but stay connected to your sense of curiosity, discovery, excitement, and wonder so that the content you're learning is constantly transforming you—it's something you care about, something you remember after the final exam. Work on the aspects of yourself no one can measure, like integrity, wisdom, kindness, and compassion, so that you're not only developing your academic and career potential but also investing in the type of adult you're going to be, the person you'll have to live with after you clock out every day for the rest of your life.

Doing the hard inner work of building your character and learning deeply instead of just earning grades will set you up for a satisfying, well-rounded life. Strange as it sounds, it will also put you ahead in your academic and career goals, because colleges and hiring managers aren't looking for an empty set of data on a spreadsheet; they want a fully fleshed-out person marked by passion, creativity, and a story no one else has lived.

So go on studying hard for tests, but also spend some time asking yourself what matters in life and who your role models are. Read up on topics that amaze you, and build something incredible just for fun. Cultivate that spark of joy you feel when you're immersed in a subject that fascinates you. If you can hit that balancing act of doing your homework and meeting deadlines but also investing in the kind of person you want to be, then trust that all the rest will follow: schools will recognize you as a dynamic, all-star person, and you will also build a life of happiness, close relationships, and peace.

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